Can Digital Immigrants acquire the accent?

In his article Digital Natives, Digital Immigrant, Mark Prensky states that we can differentiate two kinds of people: you can either be a Digital Native or a Digital Immigrant.
What does that mean? The first group represents the first generations to grow up with new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age. And on the other hand, the later refers to the ones who were not born into the digital world but have adopted many or most aspects of the new technology.

We consider ourselves in the middle,we are not immigrants neither natives, since we were born in an era in which technology was starting to develop. But, now we live in the era in which everything is “smart”, even some house devices. So, as teachers to be we need to consider that our students may be a step beyond us as regards technology. That is the reason why we need to improve our ways to teach and to include new technologies in the classrooms in order to involve students in their learning.

We already shared the useful app “Remind” for a teacher to communicate with her/his students. Another way to improve teaching is to have a group in Edmodo, for example. There they can share videos, images and texts that the students and the teacher find interesting. A way to include technology in the lessons is through many engaging  activities provided by different websites, like the British Council.

To conclude, we only want to mention that all these activities, although they are engaging, they all need internet connection to be done. Consequently, you need to make sure that all your students can have access to it , not only some of them.

All in all, we can see that Digital Immigrants can adapt and use technology for their own benefits. Sometimes, this may be more difficult for them than for Digital Natives; but it is possible.

What is new on Apps!

A new and relatively unknown mobile application called Remind has appeared.
Remind is not a game, neither social network. It is a texting tool designed to establish stronger lines of communication among teachers, students, and their parents.
The same way Edmodo replaced Facebook at educational institutions, Remind tries to accomplish the same but replacing WhatsApp within the field of education with mobile phones.
 
 “If we can find a way to engage parents in the classroom two to three times a week, vs. one to two times a year, and if we can make teachers better by making them more efficient, we can have an enormous impact,” says Brett Kopf, Remind’s 27-year-old chief executive officer.

Kopf grew up with dyslexia and other learning disabilities and initially designed Remind to help people facing similar challenges. But then, Brett and David Kopf (his brother) had better luck after joining Imagine K12.
Together in 2011, they decided to focus more on communication and asked 200 teachers what they would want from a classroom application. The consistent answer was: to get parents more involved.
Remind is now looking for new users at Spain, Mexico and Argentina by working with the Spanish editorial Santillana, in order to create a pilot app for teachers in Spain and Latin-American countries.

But let’s see what Remind can really do! First of all, it is free; one can download it from Apple Store or Play Store. Teachers can update homework assignments, send photos, transmit short surveys and record voice messages. And above all, it is not invasive; you do not need phone numbers, so it would not generate conflicts with the students’ families.
Moreover, the teacher has control over the conversation: when to initiate and finish the talks.

Should we give it a try?
https://www.remind.com

'What is ECO II about?'

Last year, “Time Magazine” presented an article talking about the new “Apple Watch” just released on the market. In the article, it was explained how technology itself tries to colonize our bodies. Later, another topic was how technology affects people in their everyday life and the problems that carrying a Smartphone provokes, for example, lack of attention to the real world, working hours, among others.
You may wonder by now what this has to do with education. Well it is easy, almost everything! Why? Simply because, the same situations mentioned in the article, happen in our classroom with our students. Teenagers, adolescents and even kids are connected all the time, to the point that they do not pay enough attention to what is happening around them, or their own thoughts or others’ opinions that are in the same room. What they really think about is “what is happening on Twitter? Or Facebook? Or Instagram?” As the article in Time’s magazine said “they are never off line”.
So what can we do about that? Take every advantage as we can and work with technology as a useful tool inside and outside the classroom. That is what ECO II and our Blog are about!

Welcome and enjoy!